No doubt about it. Tokyo Movie Shinsha was and still is one
of my favourite Japanese studios (along with Studio Ghibli, of course...). Up to
2010 its works are still extremely beloved from the Italian audience: Cristina D'Avena keeps on singing
her successful versions of
LADY GIORGIE and CAT'S EYE and various TV-channels broadcast every year LUPIN III
and HELLO SPANK. I've
been very pleased when, in October 2000, during a trip in Tokyo, I visited TMS
Nakano's studio. Since then, I've decided to write a complete history of this
well-famous company, including an exhaustive listing of Tv-series, movies,
co-productions and more.

But first of all, I wish to thanks Mr. Shunzo Kato, TMS Chief
Producer, for granting me the permission of visiting the studio and Mrs. Yukari
Takeuchi, TMS Manager for legal & business affairs, for having showed me all
the studio and answered at my pressing questions.

Warning, because of the Kanji's many significances, some
of the names can be translated in different ways. For example, Toshitsugu
Saida and Yasuji Nagaoka can also be read as Shunji Saida and Koji
Nagaoka.

Author's Note: The names in Small Capitals are those of
animation studios. I wrote the translated Japanese title of the Tv-series in
CAPITAL letters.

Tokyo Movie was established in 1964 by Yutaka Fujioka, when
TBS-Television needed a studio who was able to make the animation of Osamu
Tezuka's character BIG X. This has been the first and last time that Tokyo Movie
used
stories and characters from "God of Manga" immense production.

The second Tv-series premiered by Fujioka, OBAKE NO Q.TARO, was
the earliest comical Tv-series ever developed in Japan, since, during 1963 and
1964, only adventurous or SF products were screened on tv.

The Tv-series produced after 1964, KAIBUTSUKUN, PAMAN and
UMEHOSHI DENKA, were animated in association with Studio Zero, where Shinichi
Suzuki and Fujiko F. Fujio duo were working.

One year later, Toei veterans Daikichiro Kusube, Osamu
Kobayashi and Tsutomu Shibayama formed A-Productions, which was the main and
the largest Tokyo Movie's subsidiary studio. It is my duty to remember that sometimes, behind the
TMS logo, there is only the managerial job, that is the contact with sponsors,
toys manufacturers and television networks. Every episode of a
Tv-series is a mosaic of sequences realized mainly by other smaller studios.

Kusube was animation supervisor in OBAKE NO Q.TARO and KYOJIN NO HOSHI. This one
was the first of Tokyo Movie Tv-series to use complete color animation. During the
production of this Tv-series a young animator named Yoshifumi Kondo came to
Kusube's attention: despite he was only eighteen years old, Kondo was a highly
regarded at as a strong creative force.

Following the success of this
anime, it was produced a similar
one, although set in the world of female volleyball, named ATTACK NO.1. Thanks
to this long Tv-series, Tokyo Movie introduced its animation to a new girls audience.
It broke ground to other not-widely-known production companies, that invaded the
screens with similar stories.

Tokyo Movie might be considered as the first Japanese firm that
produced a full-color animated Tv-sequence for broadcasting it in the mid-evening: ROPPO YABURE KUN,
was an adult-oriented comedy about the misadventures of a lowly salaryman and his
wife. This was the archetype of the modern animated sit-coms that today they
rule on the Tv-screen.

1969 was a very important year for
A-Productions: Toei's
veteran Yasuo Otsuka joined Tokyo Movie's subsidiary studio as animation supervisor
on MOOMIN. It was one of the early Tv-series to be produced and broadcast in Japan owning story and characters of
an European author, Tove Jansson. Initially, in the MOOMIN's planning it also
participated a smaller company named Zuiyo. (today known as
Nippon-Animation)

For Tokyo Movie's fifteenth Tv-series, Fujioka chose a well-known
manga by
Yasumi Yoshizawa, DONJOKO GAERU. It was a highly-rated anime, whose
story has been very popular on Shonen Jump comic magazine for many long
years. Another important author in such years was Fujio Akatsuka. Tokyo Movie
had to produce two successful Tv-series upon his nonsensical characters of
TENSAI BAKABON. (About it, I have to
mention the existence of a third Tv-series released by Studio Pierrot in 1995) As
well as, the beginning of the 1970s finally marked the realization of CHINGO
MUCHA BE, the last monochromatical series produced by Fujioka's company.

In 1971, two years later from the completion of pilot-film,
Fujioka premiered the regular Tv-series based on Monkey Punch characters: LUPIN
SANSEI. Each episode of this cult series showed a wide variety of innovative
scripts and situations. During the realization of this unlucky anime
(because of low audience it was stopped at episode 23), Hayao Miyazaki became director
for the first time (but they didn't credit him), enriching the series with
wondering sequences and spectacular close-ups. Minoru Maeda and Junzaburo
Takahata began their career working as inbetween animators under the guide
of supervisor Yasuo Otsuka. A substantial part of the key-frames was
prepared by veteran artists such as Koichi Murata, Nobuhiro Okaseko and
Tetsuo Imazawa.

Hayao Miyazaki
achieved the storyboard for a never made movie inspired to
the Swedish popular book "Pippi Longstocking". The late authoress Astrid
Lindgren was reluctant in selling the rights of her characters to a such unknown
group of Japanese people. (only in 1997, the actual copyrights holders authorized the realization of an
animated film. But the full-length produced by Nelvana had a scarce visual impact,
due to a mixture of motives and a variety of causes: an ordinary character-design,
dull colors, and awful animations)

Part of those elements were
adapted into PANDA KOPANDA and
AMEFURI CIRCUS. They were Tokyo Movie first original mid-length theatrically
released,
and were both directed by Isao Takahata on a tale entirely re-written by Hayao Miyazaki himself.
Yoshifumi Kondo worked as key-animator in both movies.

The permanence of
Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata it was stopped there. In fact, they
joined their teacher Yasuji Mori at the newly-established Zuiyo
Enterprise. There, they will give a fundamental contribution to the development of the famous
World Masterpiece Theater's series. (one of the most-rated of them was
ALPS SHOJO HEIDI)

Otsuka continued working for Tokyo Movie,
supervising SAMURAI GIANTS, in which also partecipated Yoshiyuki Tomino as a
storyboarder. This Tv-series was important because some episodes were partly
drawn by Hayao Miyazaki and others from the staff of the newly-formed Madhouse.
The most of the layouts were achieved by Kenji Kodama, Junzaburo Takahata
and A-Productions (Yuzo Aoki, Eiichi Nakamura and Hideo Kawaguchi).

AKADO SUZUNOSUKE was a historical
anime aired in 1972 and based upon a well-known radio-drama named the same. In this Tv-series big veteran artists as Osamu Dezaki,
Yoichi Kotabe and Shingo Araki (among others)
worked. Osamu Dezaki left Mushi Productions a short time before to collaborate
with his longtime colleague Masao Maruyama, who's the actual president of
Madhouse.

The fruitful collaboration with Madhouse
continues with the dramatic ACE O NERAE! and the relatively unknown
children-oriented JUNGLE KUROBE, both produced in 1973 and directed by
Osamu Dezaki. Madhouse was founded thanks to the Yutaka Fujioka's
financings.In Madhouse were working
Yoshiaki Kawajiri, Akio Sugino along with other ex-members of Mushi Productions.
Despite of
its forced stop at the episode 26, ACE O NERAE! had to represent an important phase in the long
history of Japanese animation, which reflected all of the psychological aspects
of an entire generation. The 1978's sequel was dully directed by Minoru Okazaki
and Satoshi Dezaki.

Between 1973 and 1974, Tokyo Movie produced Tv-series discontinuously, alternating great
hits, such as GIATRUS, to other lucky less series, like JUDO SANKA. (although
big names of Japanese animation, as Shingo Araki and Yoshiaki Kawajiri, worked on
them)

A little nice mouse was the main character of GANBA NO BOKEN, a
26-episodes Tv-series aired
between April and September 1975. All the episodes were drawn by Yoshiaki Kawajiri
(Madhouse) and Yoshifumi Kondo (A-Pro). GANBA and his friends will only return sixteen
years later in a long-length, this time directed by Shunji Oga.A
half dozen of episodes of the 1975's Tv-series were directed by
Osamu Dezaki under the pseudonym of
Maki Sakura.

In 1976 Tokyo Movie entered crisis. There was a risky decrease in animated
Tv-series, leaving thus
unemployed hundreds of animators. Unfortunately, it was not enough to produce a
humoristic adult-oriented Tv-series based on a well-known manga of Shunji Sonoyama.
HANA NO
KAKARICHOU, literally The Rampant Foreman, strongly anticipates the theme and the chara-design of the 1989's
successful animated sit-com of THE SIMPSONS. It had not even been enough the making in subcontract
of GUYSLUGGER from Toei. Hereupon,
Fujioka was constrained to close its company. This was the third important
bankurptcy after those of Zuiyo and Mushi.

After the closing of Tokyo Movie headquarters, the
associate studio A-Productions
promptly changed its commercial name in Shin'Ei Doga (Shin'A). Daikichiro
Kusube's newly-formed company worked as subcontracting studio for about the
first two years of its existence, but in 1979 its management team was able in signing an exclusive deal in order to produce
Tv-series on Fujiko F. Fujio's manga. The success was
and still is great in Japan, especially for DORAEMON.

Toshiyuki Honda and Osamu Kobayashi, both
senior animators in A-Productions, founded their smaller own studios named
respectively Animal~ya and
Asiado. Sadayoshi Tominaga had already left Tokyo Movie's subsidiary several
years before and together
with some artists he had organized his Tomi Production.
In spite of all this events, 1975's Tv-series GANSO TENSAI BAKABON continued without
interruptions thanks to a handful of animators loyal to Fujioka.

Fujioka went on to re-open his studio in 1977, a uneventful year for
Japanese animation, naming it Tokyo Movie Shinsha. (today known as TMS
Entertainment) The first Tv-series produced was SHIN LUPIN III. Each single
component of this anime, story, character design, background and especially the
voice characterization of Yasuo Yamada and music of Yuji Ono, played a very
important role in LUPIN's popularity. Unlike the 1971's Tv-series, SHIN LUPIN
III had great success and counted 155 episodes, each of them supervised by
Kenji Kodama and Takeo Kitahara. (they were already among the former staff
of Tokyo Movie)In the same year, other two successful
anime were realized:
SHIN-KYOJIN NO HOSHI and IENAKI KO. The first was a sequel of successful Tv-series
produced in 1968. The latter was based upon the classic book by Hector Malot and it was
magistrally directed by Osamu Dezaki. He went to capture all the touching
and yearning emotions of the original work.

The collaboration with
Madhouse's crew went to enhance even more, as too the quality of animation. One year later, Osamu Dezaki, beside
his longtime colleague Akio
Sugino, conducted TAKARAJIMA, a new animated transposition from the book of
Robert Louis Stevenson. However, its screenplay was not faithful to the original
novel,
but it was partially re-written by Haruya Yamazaki.
In 1978 it appeared in the theaters LUPIN SANSEI. It was the first TMS long-length
animated film, and it was directed by Soji Yoshikawa. Yuzo Aoki and Yoshio
Kabashima took care of the animation supervision. This movie had a never-seen-before quality.
Even
Toei didn't reach such levels. The original drawings (or key-frames) were realized by several
smaller subcontracting companies, such as Studio Look and the newly-established
Magic Bus. It was run by Satoshi Dezaki, who is the younger brother of the well-known
Osamu.

The 1970s closed with VERSAILLES NO BARA, considered to be
one of Osamu Dezaki's best works. This Tv-series will be acclaimed and beloved only
several time after its airing and it is still. The first part of this Tv-series was
directed by Tadao Nagahama along with almost all TMS directors. On the second
part was just recalled Osamu Dezaki and some Madhouse's lead artists. But the
original drawings were prepared by other small studios, since Madhouse was working on a
Tv-series named MARCO POLO NO BOKEN produced by NHK. All of VERSAILLES NO BARA's animation cells were
skilfully supervised by Shingo Araki, helped by his main assistant Michi Himeno. Just before,
Osamu Dezaki had organized its own studio (Annapurna) in order to collaborate without
any restriction for both TMS and Madhouse.

Immediately after, it appears on the screens
the sequel of Mushi's ASHITA NO JOE. As in the 1970's Tv-series the
direction and the character design bring Dezaki/Sugino's signature. Kenji Kodama and Satoshi Hirayama
took care of the layout design in the episodes made by TMS, Atsuko Fukushima and Koji Morimoto
did it in those outsourced to the new studio of Osamu Dezaki. There dozens
of young animators were trained, such as Shinji Otsuka, Katsuya Kondo and
Sachiko Sugino. (each of them will have an important role in Miyazaki's
Studio Ghibli)

Around 1978, several members from Oh!
Production (Kazuhide
Tomonaga and Tsukasa Tannai, among others) and from old A-Productions (Yasuo
Otsuka) joined Telecom Animation Film (TAF), today one of the best subsidiary of TMS.
Telecom began doing the first pilot-film for a joint work named LITTLE NEMO. The first
full-length film from this pool of artists was LUPIN SANSEI (also known as MYSTERY
OF MAMO), produced and released in the same year, but they did only inbetween assistance. Tsutomu Shibayama
(Shin'Ei) helped
the new studio drawing the whole layout-design with Yasuo Otsuka in the role of
supervising director. The support of Yasuo Otsuka was somewhat marginal, because
he was also working on the famous Miyazaki's
Tv-series of MIRAI SHONEN CONAN, which was produced by Nippon-Animation.

A very famous movie was
the following CAGLIOSTRO NO SHIRO,
directed in 1979 by Hayao Miyazaki.This time it was entirely made at Telecom,
where Nobuo Tomizawa and Masako Shinohara also come. Atsuko
Tanaka did a great work with some of the most wondering action-scenes ever made. The movie is a manual on how to make an animated long-length. It has a
very perfect script, genial ideas, spectacular visuals, fluid animation,
beautiful colors, and superb music. CAGLIOSTRO had shown the real potentiality of the
newly-established studio headed by Yasuo Otsuka. Even if it received a special award at the International Festival of Cinema in Cannes,
the movie itself was considered a commercial failure, not because of a scarce flow of spectators, but for the fact that the incomes covered only partly the
production costs.

Telecom was
hired to develop new episodes of SHIN LUPIN SANSEI however. The episode 145 "Shi no Tsubasa Albatross" and episode 155 "Saraba Itoshiki
Lupin Yo!" were both directed by Miyazaki, who subsequently presents the
storyboards for two original full-length named MONONOKE HIME and TONARI NO
TOTORO. But both these projects were rejected, from the moment that the producers had foreseen a scarce commercial success.
The position of president will be assigned to Koji Takeuchi. For the verity, the name of the studio was very often associated to Yasuo Otsuka, who was one of the main co-founders, and the real creative guide behind Telecom.
Prior to him, the studio located in Mitaka was trained by Sadao Tsukioka,
who was
one of the most capable freelance artists during the whole 1960s.

Soon afterward, Italian cartoonist Marco Pagot (a great fan of Miyazaki),
chose TMS to realize IL FIUTO DI SHERLOCK HOLMES, co-produced with Rever and RAI (Radio
Televisione Italiana). Expert animator Yoshifumi Kondo did the characters
sketches, from which the animated versions were done, re-drawing Pagot's plan.
Miyazaki himself directed the episodes 3, 4, 9 and 11. On the other remaining episodes,
completed in 1985, were
involved Nobuo Tomizawa and Keiji Hayakawa. This was the last time that Miyazaki
worked on a TMS production. He went on to establish Studio Ghibli along with Isao
Takahata and the financial benefits of Tokuma Shoten.

These landmarks of animation
are rarely seen on Italian
television, and they have been released on home-video several years ago. (CAGLIOSTRO
videocassette is now out of print, but a new version in DVD is to be
announced soon)

Another masterpiece was the
full-length version of ACE O NERAE!, produced in
1979 and directed by Osamu Dezaki. The animation, done by Akio Sugino along with
Madhouse support, is still unsurpassed. Shichiro Kobayashi and Hirokata
Takahashi were respectively art-director and director of photography. (in Italy,
this movie had to annually appear on some small televisions. It's also
available on videocassette by "Yamato Video", that has recently published DVD
versions of LUPIN SANSEI and VERSAILLES NO BARA)

Kobayashi was a well-known art-director and did the backgrounds
for many animated Tv-series, including recent Studio Gallop's HIME CHAN NO RIBBON.
He worked for TMS in SHIN-OBAKE NO Q.TARO, and later lent his talent on almost
all of the 1970s Tv-series. Throughout the whole 1980s, Toshiharu Mizutani, who
already worked under the supervision of Kobayashi on GANSO TENSAI BAKABON, will
be involved in the role of art-director of all TMS Tv-series. He is best-known for
his work on the AKIRA movie: he was simultaneously working on several project at
that time, including the backgrounds on MAJO NO TAKKYUBIN, that will be released
in 1989 by Toho. Another capable art-director was Tsutomu Ishigaki, who'll be
mostly involved on SF Tv-series as TETSUJIN ROBO 28 GO, GODMARS and SPACE
COBRA.

1980 marked the realization of the first
SF Tv-series
made by TMS, HAKUGEI NO MU. As well as, it was the first one in employing
an all-original plot, written by Hiroyuki Hoshiyama and Yutaka Kaneko. Unlike Toei
Animation or Sunrise (among others), TMS released a few robot-anime. In Japan, its more famous
production was surely GODMARS. Kazuyuki Hirokawa and Satoshi Dezaki were the director of all of
its episodes under the guide of Tetsuo Imazawa, while Hideyuki Motohashi with
all Studio Z5 staff co-operated at its animation.

With the conclusion of GODMARS, TMS premiered also a
new full-length, in which participated over a hundred of
talented animators, many of whom worked in the following MU NO HAKUGEI and TETSUJIN ROBO
28, a remake of the ancient
monochrome anime
produced in 1966 by TCJ and based on a Mitsuteru Yokohama manga. Their
success was guaranteed from the presence of Tetsuo Imazawa, one of the
most able directors at Studio Junio.

Between 1980 and 1982, Fuji-Television aired several
Tv-specials realized by TMS. Among these, one of the most important was SUGATA
SANSHIRO, in which, for the first time, Kazuide Tomonaga did work as animation-supervisor. Moreover, this work has been the second Tv-special made at
Telecom along with TOKAIDO YOTSUYA KAIDAN, which wasn't instead developed
for TMS.

In 1981 TMS also produced
the sequel of successful DOKONJU GAERU. Remarkably, the new generation of TMS
animators was really skilled to recapture the feeling of the original work.

During these years, Shigetsugu Yoshida was in charge to follow two Tv-series
based upon two famous shojo-manga. The first one, OHAYO! SPANK, was
published on "Nakayoshi" comic magazine and drawn by Shizue Takahashi. The
latter one, LADY GEORGIE, was skilfully animated on characters of the well-known
mangaka Yumiko Igarashi.

In 1982 there's been a third original
Tv-series directed by
Yoshida, TONDEMON-PE, which was conceived by Haruya Yamazaki. He's been one of
the most important and able screenwriters that collaborated with TMS, working at
same time for others company.

TMS continued its high-quality movie series in
1981 with JARINKO CHIE conduced by Isao Takahata. This funny full-lenght was
again outsourced at Telecom, but this time Miyazaki was not involved in it.
The animation was supervised by Yasuo Otsuka and Yoichi Kotabe. During the
same year, was also developed a Tv-series about these characters, on which
worked Tsukasa Tannai, Takeo Kitahara and
Toshitsugu Saida as animation supervisors. Unfortunately this movie as never
released in Italy.

Respectively in 1982 and 1983, TMS released SPACE ADVENTURE COBRA and the realistically animated GOLGO 13, both directed by Osamu Dezaki.
The dreamy and wondering sequences of COBRA were submitted to the various
studios around TMS. Keiko Oyamada and Makiko Futaki were both selected
from the staff at Telecom. From its studio, Osamu Dezaki hired Hidetoshi
Omori, Atsuko Fukushima and Shinji Otsuka. It is my duty to remember the
participation of Shingo Araki and his longtime assistant Michi Himeno. About GOLGO 13, there is also a
1998's OVA sequel entitled QUEEN BEE and directed again by Osamu Dezaki, but it is not a TMS
production.

After completion of animated hit GOLGO 13,
Osamu Dezaki and Akio Sugino
moved in the U.S.A. to represent TMS. The American stay lasted not less than five years, during
which was produced a short SF Tv-series entitled MIGHTY ORBOTS. They returned into Japan to work on the original video animation series
of ACE O NERAE. Between 1989 and 1995, Osamu Dezaki also directed several Tv-special of
LUPIN SANSEI.

In order of time,
ROWLF (based on a comic book by Richard Corben) was the first full-length
that would have been able to be developed for a foreign client. But the project didn't go over
the initial phase,
in which was involved Hayao Miyazaki as storyboard artist.

The first Tv-series to be
co-produced with an European network was ULYSSES 31 for France 3. It will only appear on Japanese
Tv-screens eight years later, thanks to the requests of Shingo Araki's fans. Almost
contemporarily, it was also developed a pilot film for a new Tv-series named LUPIN HASSEI, a
joint work with France's DIC Audiovisuel never started.

The second Tv-series made
for hire was
THE NEW ADVENTURES OF ZORRO, under contract of Filmation
Associates. Afterwards, TMS produced THE LITTLES, INSPECTOR GADGET and HEATHCLIFF
& CATILLACS CATS for DIC. These Tv-series were directed by Saburo Hashimoto, Keiko Oyamada,
Nobuo Tomizawa and Hiroyuki Yano (among others). Hashimoto started as an inbetweener on
CAGLIOSTRO and, recently, he has been director on Disney's GARGOYLES and JAFAR'S RETURN.

From 1980 to 1985, almost all of TMS works were regularly on
the top of the "Animage" readers best 30. Many of these Tv-series, especially CAT'S
EYE , and OHAYO! SPANK, were very successful in Italy.

After four years from the ending of
SHIN LUPIN SANSEI was introduced a third Tv-series. The animators at
Telecom were not
involved in the making, since they was waiting for the storyboards from a
widely-known international major. This series, produced by Tadahito Matsumoto, gained a solid
reputation amid international fandom, even if the charcater design was very squarer and
caricatural in comparison to the preceding animated incarnations of Lupin.
Hideyuki Motohashi, Shingo Araki and Yuzo Aoki took care of the animation
supervision. (among them, Aoki was the only artist that had previously worked on Monkey Punch's
characters)

Exploiting the popularity of MACROSS, Big-West commissioned to TMS a similar Tv-series, ORGUSS. Big-West had frozen the
recent agreements with Tatsunoko, because this one had sold the rights of
MACROSS without their authorization. Despite this, most of the staff had to remain the same, since both the series had been outsourced
at Artland. As well as, the mecha-design was co-developed one more time
along with Studio Nue's crew. (formerly known as Crystal Art Studio)

Just after, and for the first time, Dynamic Planning
chose TMS in order to realize GOD MAZINGER, a Tv-series based on a manga by Go
Nagai. Dynamic's management closed any agreement with Toei Animation, due to legal
problems on copyright.

Around 1984, Walt Disney Television was intentioned to make in
Japan several new Tv-series for American network ABC. Whoever, in the world of animation
business, thought at Toei Doga, for its great rapidity in realizing anime. Instead, the Burbank's company chose the
pilot-films made by TMS for their high quality.
Indeed, such works were animated at Telecom: the resourceful management at TMS was able in outsourcing
them there. Telecom itself was officially organized in May 1975 for such purposes. The first work of Disney/TMS agreement was THE WUZZLES. A third pilot-film was completed by a Korean
staff, but it was rejected. The Japanese were reluctant to teach them all the techniques
and the expedients of the animation process. In matter of fact, at Seoul, the
Japanese companies subcontract ink and paint works and few other.

Howhere, TMS had also made animated Tv-series for other foreign
firms besides Disney, such as
BIONIC SIX, GALAXY HIGH SCHOOL and GALAXY RANGER, this one under contract of
UK's Transcom Media.

While TMS was completely absorbed by these
Tv-series, Sunrise
purchased the rights of CITY HUNTER, another best-seller manga of Tsukasa Hojo,
obtaining at the same time the collaboration of Kenji Kodama and Takeo
Kitahara (respectively chief-director on CAT'S EYE and animation
supervisor on SHIN LUPIN). According to official fonts, between 1985 and
1995, the number of Tv-series produced in Japan were fastly increased at circa 50 a year,
excluding the overseas co-productions. TMS was present for a long time in the national televison channels with at least 3/4
Tv-series every year, but from 1985 it drastically reduces the number of
its Tv-series produced for the Japanese market.

Another very important
joint work was LITTLE NEMO, finally completed
in 1988 by Telecom after a long and troubled development, with nothing to envy to the Disney's
well-known features films. The project in question began in 1978, but its realization was interrupted five years later, because of some economic
problems from the foreign co-producers. One of the pilot-films
was directed by Yoshifumi Kondo.

Miyazaki, once co-director
and storyboard artist on LITTLE NEMO (the opening sequence was almost
certainly conceived by him),
ran against the requests of Fujioka and the foreign co-producers.
Therefore, he
definitively left
TMS to
make the animated version of NAUSICAÄ. Subsequently, Miyazaki hired Tsukasa
Tannai and Masaaki Endo, who've been two among the most promising artists at
Telecom. Nowadays, his films have been shown all over the world and won numerous prizes
including the prestigious Academy Award and a special medal at Venice Film Festival.
Perhaps if Miyazaki had obtained the green light from Yutaka Fujioka, he would have remained one of the employees of TMS and
Studio Ghibli would never have been born...

In the same year, Warner and Steven Spielberg selected Nakano's
studio for several American Tv-series. ANIMANIACS and TINY TOON have
been widely appreciated from American audience, and they have generated some
original episodes broadcast as Tv-specials. The latest Warner's product made in TMS/Telecom
has been the direct-to-video special BATMAN BEYOND.

Inside Japan, TMS gambled on two humoristic series. One of
these has been a remake of ROBOTAN, originally produced in 1966 by other studios
that now no longer exists. SAMIADON, produced in conjunction with Asiado, has been supervised and directed by Osamu
Kobayashi and Tsutomu Shibayama. (from 1979 to 1981 TMS produced several comical
long-length movies that were supervised by them: check Super Data File
for their titles).

In the meantime, Telecom's
crew was once again hired for a new
LUPIN's movie, internationally known as FUMA CONSPIRACY. Yasuo Otsuka worked
achieving the entire layout-design helped by Kazuhide Tomonaga, while Hiroyuki Aoyama, Koichi
Maruyama and Toshihiko Masuda did the key frames. This film has many similarities with CAGLIOSTRO. LUPIN
wears a green jacket, he owns a yellow Fiat 500 in both, Shichiro Kobayashi has
been art-director in both works. Instead, the songs have not been done by Yuji
Ono.

For the
first time, during those years, TMS transferred a substantial part of its production process at Seoul and Manila.
Even if today Disney and Toei prefer to
work very hard in the Philippines, TMS Manila facilities (run by Shunsuke Harada)
had to relatively have a brief life. One of the subsidiary in South Korea was a smaller studio
named Mizo-Planning. Koko Enterprise was a parent company controlled by
Sega-Sammy Group. Koko was an independent subcontracting studio for both Warner
and Tristar, and also supplied inbetween animations on a pair of LUPIN's
features.

A new escape of employees arrived
between 1991 and 1992, when Koichi Maruyama and Yasumi Mikamoto, along with other
animation directors and layout designers, left TMS to work at Disney's Japanese
subsidiary, which has been formed by ex-TMS producer Motoyoshi Tokunaga. Disney
had already purchased Pacific Animation (PAC) in April 1989. (initially, the
Tokyo branch was run by Masaki Iizuka) As well as, a smaller handful of artists went
on to found
Spectrum Animation Studio, working for both American and Canadian clients.

The best and the most
expensive Japanese animated movie ever made, AKIRA, was directed
by its author Katsuhiro Otomo for TMS in 1988. For its realization participated almost all of the animation studios of Tokyo. As Otomo's assistant has been chosen veteran Yoshio
Takeuchi, who already was co-director and storyboard artist on several episodes of VERSAILLES NO BARA and CAT'S
EYE. AKIRA was
the cyberpunk apocalyptic movie that introduced anime to an adult audience,
especially in UK, where it broke ground to the definitive anime invasion.
Telecom developed some of the most difficult and spectacular sequences and was part of
the production
committee.

As well as, Telecom was one of the few studios in processing
animation for Studio Ghibli. Kazuhide
Tomonaga worked as key-animator in TENKU NO SHIRO-LAPUTA. Atsuko Tanaka did the same
role on almost all Miyazaki's movies. Keiko Oyamada and Nobuo Tomizawa (among
others) also worked as
additional key-animators on THE TIGGER MOVIE of Walt Disney Productions. In
recent time, Telecom supplies inbetween animations for more studios and it has
finally produced its first Tv-series named TIDELINE BLUE.

Actually, Hiroyuki
Aoyama (key-animator on AKIRA and LITTLE NEMO) and Toshiyuki Hiruma (inbetween
animator on CAGLIOSTRO and assistant or unit-director in almost all of the 1980s
TMS overseas
co-productions) are employed as supervising directors in Seoul's studios, working for
various American companies. Hiruma also did work on EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS
and GODZILLA, which episodes were entirely made for hand of Korean
animators.

Since 1989 TMS has punctually produced LUPIN's tv special every
year. The earliest, GOODBYE LADY LIBERTY, was supervised and directed by Osamu
Dezaki, who'll direct also the successive work, HEMINGWAY PAPERS.

The 1990s open with some imitation of the Nippon-Animation's
World-Masterpiece series, FUTARI NO LOTTE, CLARE GAKUEN MONOGATARI and BOKU NO
PATRASH (a remake of Zuiyo's anime dated 1974). These Tv-series haven't had a great
audience, despite of accurate scripts by capable Haruya Yamazaki. (he worked as
co-writer
on CAGLIOSTRO and TAKARAJIMA)

In the first middle of 1990s,
TMS betted too much on the foreign co-productions, losing an important battle in the war for the audience on the Japanese
networks. According to Kadokawa's Newtype, Toei's anime as DRAGONBALL Z and SLAM DUNK were greatest hits,
reaching respectively 22,4% and 17,5% of share precentage, whereas FUTARI NO LOTTE and RED BARON
arrived hardly 7.6% and 3.2%. As well as, there was an
inevitable decrease of quality, due to the progressive transfer of the animation process
in the Asian countries.

CYBERKIDS and JARINKO CHIE
were among the Tv-series produced by TMS to gain a good popolarity during 1991. The first one has based on a
script by Monkey Punch and it's been animated under the supervision of Osamu
Nabeshima and Hideyuki Motohashi of Studio Z5. The second Tv-series was a sequel of the 1981's
success that's been directed by Norihiko Sudo with new characters for
animation designed by Toshitsugu Saida.

To counterpoise this negative trend, TETSUJIN ROBO 28 was resumed and
totally re-designed by Studio OX, but the Japanese audience showed not to
appreciate another robot-anime. The share percentage was inferior
to their expectations.

On the contrary, the American co-productions
regularly continued, with new episodes of TINY TOON, following PETER PAN and SPIDERMAN,
both under aired by Fox Television. Only 13 episodes of PETER PAN were completed
at Telecom, the remaining others were made by several Korean studios. Meanwhile, after the success of
LUPIN's tv specials, TMS made other new titles, directed always by Osamu Dezaki.
(he worked as storyboard artist on some few episodes of the 1971's Tv-series) In
the fifth special, VOYAGE IN DANGER, TMS has recalled the capable Masaaki Osumi,
once chief director on the earliest Tv-series. Masaharu Okuwaki, assistant director on
this work, directed also the next special.

At that time, TMS has also produced
a high-quality OVA series named OZANARI DUNGEON, two episodes of whom were
animated at Telecom. The 1994's following MAPS was supervised by Hideyuki Motohashi,
from a manga by Hirokazu Hasegawa. TMS has never
made a number of OVA, otherwise from other Japanese animation firms. The first OVA, 2001
YORU MONOGATARI, was released in 1987: it's based on the manga of Yukinobu
Hoshino by the same name. Recently, TMS has released an high-rated OVA based on short stories by Gosho Aoyama, who's also
the author of the best-selled hit MEITANTEI
CONAN.

During the Kyokuichi's age,
both TMS and Telecom
will produced
some animated intro for Sega Saturn games: GRANDIA, ASTAL, LAST BRONX and
BURNING RANGER. The Tv-series VIRTUA FIGHTER and SONIC (co-produced
in association with DIC) are based on popular Sega's software.

Under the guide of Kyokuichi Corporation (a Sega's
subsidiary), TMS bought the rights of the popular manga MAGIC KNIGHT RAYEARTH,
with the strong intention to regain audience in Japan. (During next year, Sega
will take advantage of these characters to realize an high-rated action-RPG on
its Saturn console)

The latest most popular TMS
anime
to be screened in Japan has been MEITANTEI CONAN. Up to 2010, this Tv-series
counts hundreds of episodes and was broadcast by Tv-Tokio since 1996. Not
even decennial high-rated Tv-series, such as SAZAESAN and DORAEMON, have reached
its share of audience. A eight years before was released in Japan ANPANMAN, another
well-known Tv-series for a children audience based on the funny characters
conceived by Takashi Yanase. In despite of a share percentage not ever high, this
anime is reaching over 600 episodes completed. As well as, there are also several movies, all
of these directed
by Akinori Nagaoka.

LUPIN's special series continues, and, in the same time, two
successful long-length feature films have been premiered: KUTABARE! NOSTRADAMUS
and DEAD OR ALIVE. The first one has been entirely developed by Telecom's crew and
was co-directed by Nobuo Tomizawa. Yasuo Otsuka appears in the credits as advisor, but the design clearly brings its
unmistakable mark. The following DEAD OR ALIVE is better remembered because was
directed for Monkey Punch himself. Accordingly, this movie presents a character design most different
from that imagined by Yasuo Otsuka, retaking
that of the original manga. Furthermore,
Telecom's exploited these characters in order to produce several advertising spot under commission
of ESSO.

Another well-known animated version has been B'TX, based on the
manga by
Masami Kurumada of SAINT SEIYA's fame. It was directed by Mamoru Hamatsu. Hideyuki Motohashi
worked as animation supervisor and character designer in this series. In 1997, TMS
didn't make Tv-series, but only an amazing LUPIN special,
entitled WALTHER P.38 and directed by Hiroyuki Yano (already on ANPANMAN and
DEAD OR ALIVE). In same year, the new OVA series B'TX NEO started, and this time it was
directed by Hajime Kamegaki. Manga fans wanted Shingo Araki as supervisor, but
both tv and video series were supervised by Hideyuki Motohashi. Unfortunately,
Araki interrupted the collaboration with TMS after the achievement of some storyboards
for SHERLOCK HOLMES.

Despite the absence of Sugino and Araki, with OVA mini-series
GLASS NO KAMEN TMS had again shown to be able in producing high-quality films and mature products.
The animation was supervised by Satoshi Hirayama, one of
the most capable artists among TMS longtime collaborators. He began working
beside Yoshinori Kanada and Osamu Nabeshima at Studio Z, a small service
facilty that processed a lot of episodes for Sunrise at the
end of 1970s. Subsequently, that
studio was separated from two groups of people. The first one, formed by
Hideyuki Motohashi, Hajime Kamegaki and Hirayama himself, went on to
establish Studio Z5, maintaining a regular contract in receiving works
from TMS. The second joined Takuo Noda's Studio No.1, which already got a solid agreement
with Toei.

The first Tv-series produced by TMS to be aired after midnight has been
DEVILMAN LADY. It's planned by Dynamic and, as ever, based on a manga by Go
Nagai. Toshihiro Hirano was selected to direct it.

In the meantime, it continues
the annual appointments
with LUPIN's tv specials. TOKYO CRISIS and FUJIKO'S UNLUCKY DAYS have
respectively been directed by Toshiya Shinohara and Shinichi Watanabe, who
hasn't ever participated on LUPIN's productions. As animation
supervisor in both works, has been involved Satoshi Hirayama.

Together with Canadian and American producers, TMS/Telecom realized high quality Tv-series such as CYBERSIX and SUPERMAN/BATMAN ADVENTURES,
whose episodes have alternately been made by some Korean studios. (among others
Dong Yang and Koko Enterprise) TMS and Telecom have also realized a third episode of AMERICAN
TAIL for home-video market. Nowadays, after the success of POKEMON, TMS is gambling on some
transpositions of videogames, such as Tecmo's MONSTER FARM and DEVILCHIRU.
These Tv-series may be two of the few TMS products that will have a worldwide merchandising. The company founded by Fujioka, had already explored this
genre in 1986 with BUGTTE HONEY and in 1990 with TENGAI MAKYO, both exploiting
Hudson's characters. At present, while I'm closing this article, MONSTER FARM
(a.k.a MONSTER RANCHER) is still aired in Italy by RAI.

Mystery and blood are among the main features of
the newly-made
Tv-series aired by Japanese pay-tv Wowow, titled AYATSURI SAKON and supervised by
Toshimitsu Kobayashi. Today, TMS management working in order to secure the rights of some among the most
popular manga in course of publication in Japan. As well as, in order to lower the production costs TMS stipulated
agreements with several large Chinese studios, taking advantage of their cheap
labor. One of the best
efforts of this new renaissance was ANGEL HEART, an alternative sequel of the
well-known CITY HUNTER. The character design was achieved by veteran
Takashi Saijo, who worked for over twenty years at the facilities of Tama
Production.

Among the latest important
projects there's HAMUTARO. «We wait for there a great success among the female
public», it says Yukari Takeuchi. But, what's HAMUTARO? It's the hamster mascot of the
Nakano's studio. HAMUTARO lives!

Q:
How many animators are they workingin this place ?A: This is a temporary
building in which, betweenanimators and producers, there're workingabout
70-80 elements. In fact, veteran key-animators work in their small studios placed
around here in Nakano-Ku.

Q: Is TMS
using computers for Ink and Paint ?A: Yes, but not here. They are in the
subsidiary TOMS-Photo. Howhere, ANPANMAN and
others series are painted in traditional way.

Q: Are TMS and Telecom 2 different companies ? What's the difference
between them ?
A: Telecom of Mitaka-Shi is a 100%
subsidiary company and it's still one of the most
quoted Japanese animation studios. Moreover, it participated in the
AKIRA committee. Here at TMS of Nakano-Ku are made screenplay and some of
the key-animation of MEITANTEI CONAN and LUPIN.

Q: During years
1984-1988 TMS "co-operated" with Walt Disney Productions ? For which series ?
A: It wasn't a co-operation, but a work on contract.TMS realized WUZZLES, GUMMI BEARS and
more.

Q: Was Disney Animation Japan founded by former TMS members ?A:
Yes, the company was formed by
ex-producer Motoyoshi
Tokunaga.Subsequently, other artists followed him.

Q: Is Yasuo Otsuka teaching in the
Telecom Animation School ?A: Today, Yasuo Otsuka is not teaching, butis only
involved as an advisor at Telecom.In future, he'll open an animation
courseon Internet. He's looking for apprentices.

Q: The three Tv-series
produced by
DIC, REAL GHOSTBUSTERS, POLE POSITION and M.A.S.K, were made at TMS ?A: Those series
were made by KK C&D Asia,TMS had only realized some episodesfor REAL
GHOSTBUSTERS.

Q: But I know that one of M.A.S.K
executive producers, Tetsuo Katayama, worked with TMS on CAGLIOSTRO and
GODMARS.
A: In fact, he (along with Shigeru
Akagawa), in the middle of the 1980s, left us
to collaborate
with KK C&D Asia.

Q: How many years ago started the
"collaboration" of TMS with South Korean animation studios ?A: Korean
studios are 100% subsidiary of TMS. We started to work with them about 13
years ago.

Q: Has Telecom produced newly-made Tv-series of CYBERSIX and BATMAN/SUPERMAN ?A: Yes, Telecom is ever involved on manyhigh-quality series,
including importantco-productions with American companies.

Q: Why was not CYBERSIX broadcast
in Italy?
A: Well, Marco Pagot advised
copyrights holders against its airing,
because of the main character'sambiguous disguise.

Q: Is Kazuhide Tomonaga the
president of Telecom Animation Film ?A: No, the president is Koji
Takeuchi.Kazuhide Tomonaga is director oranimation supervisor.

Q:
May Telecom collaborate with other animation companies as Toei or Sunrise?A:
Telecom works almost exclusively for
Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli.

Q:
Well, do you think, will Mr. Miyazaki direct a new LUPIN SANSEI movie ?A: I
don't know (she smiled...).

Interview
taken from Mrs.Yukari Takeuchi,
TMS Manager for Legal and Business Affairs,
October 2000, in the head office at Kamitakada,Nakano-Ku, Tokyo.

This is a tribute to one of the most important
and reputable animation
companies, that, throughout the seventies,
influenced hundreds of animators and,
at the same time, amused millions of boys and girls all over the
world.

My article is not intended as a commercial page, but
only as a work from fan to fan. Enjoy it!
Please
note! On demand of TMS in this site images of their Tv-series, characters or artists are not been used.